The Civil War is upon us: The events of April 1861 changed Springfield and the nation forever

(This is the first in a 48-part series that will tell the story of Springfield during each month of the Civil War, which happened 150 years ago)

The April of 1861 arrived in Springfield with warm weather melting the snows of winter, spring freshets on the Connecticut River had flooding the meadows of Agawam and West Springfield and war clouds gathering throughout the country.

On April Fools Day readers of The Springfield Republican awoke to the news that the constitution of the Confederate States had been ratified by an overwhelming majority, “nearly reaching unanimity.”

This wasn’t surprising since the southern states began seceding from the Union shortly after the November 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln and talk of war was on everyone’s mind.

Back in the first week of January, The Republican ran a story under a bold-faced small-type headline that read:

“Treason Armed by the Government! — Astounding Developments at the Springfield Armory!”

This was heady stuff for a newspaper that seldom used bold type and very rarely an exclamation point, let alone two in one headline.

The story went on to detail the newspaper’s investigation that revealed Southern sympathizers within the federal government had arranged for more than 100,000 Springfield-made muskets to be distributed to other arsenals “for safe keeping.” These arsenals just happened to be in six southern states, one being in Charleston, South Carolina, the community that had become the eye of the upcoming storm.

The day after Christmas of 1860, U.S. Major Robert Anderson secretly moved his small garrison from an indefensible position in a small fort on Charleston Harbor to a larger more substantial position, Fort Sumter, that controlled the entrance to the harbor. Attempts by President Buchanan to send supplies and reinforcements were beaten back by South Carolina shore batteries. The siege of Fort Sumter had begun and would soon be the problem of the new President Lincoln.

fileAbraham Lincoln in 1860

The federal troops at Fort Sumter were short of food and supplies. Lincoln notified South Carolina Gov. Francis W. Pickens he was going to send supply ships. This message was met with an ultimatum from Pickens to evacuate the fort. Anderson refused to surrender and the stage was set.

When The Republican subscribers got their papers on April 12, the front page looked normal. It was all advertising, with schedules for the many railroads that served routes north, south, east and west. Ewell’s Saw Store has a sale on bench, match and plow planes for the woodworker, Julius Hallenstien was advertising his services as a paper hanger, and cider brandy was being touted as a cure all.

Local, national and world news was inside.

Springfield was preparing for the first game of “base ball” by the Pioneer Club at 3 p.m. at the Hampden Park field by the river. Carl Pease of Indian Orchard had slaughtered a four year old steer that weighed 1,522 pounds. “The animal was fattened by Ansel Nash of Ludlow.” A discussion was planned in the hall over the Chicopee bank “on the expediency of the coercion of the confederate states.” Morris & Wilson’s great traveling Minstrel company were giving two shows at the Music Hall the following week.

Springfield & The Civil War

We at The Republican are launching a four-year project to tell the story of how our community coped with 48 months of war, from April of 1861 to April of 1865.

On the first Sunday of each month we will run a report of what was happening here 150 years ago during that month.

Residents were complaining about how dusty the streets were because the city fathers couldn’t find anyone to take on the job of watering down the roads.

The daily report on Fort Sumter on this Friday morning read:

“Though our latest advices from Fort Sumter smell strongly of ‘gunpowder and blood’ no blow has yet been actually made, and the closing words point toward negotiations between Beauregard (the Confederate general) and Anderson.”

Other dispatches said that Confederate President Jeff Davis was going to let the fort be resupplied. “We may anticipate a few more days of peace and quietness...”

But the peace and quietness was already over as these words were read in Springfield. News traveled slower in those days. At 4:30 that morning the rebel batteries launched a bombardment on Fort Sumter.

The newspaper of April 13th was very different, even from a distance. Gone were the advertisements on the front page, replaced by column after column of news.

The lead paragraph began with a simple four word sentence. “War is upon us.” There were no headlines, no exclamation points, just a sea of gray information that was devoured by the citizens who craved more and got it.

For the first time an evening edition EXTRA of The Republican was printed to meet the demand and bring the latest dispatches to its readers. As the pages came off the press, they were tacked up outside the Main Street office on a wooden board around which people crowded around to see the latest “bulletins.”

On the same day the news of the shelling of Fort Sumter arrived, The Republican reported that the federal armory in Springfield “commenced making guns at the rate of 1,500 per month, up from the 800 being manufactured monthly just a few weeks before. “If there must be fighting, fortunate are the troops armed with the Springfield rifle musket, and a man shot with it ‘dies easy’ it is said.” Unfortunately more than 100,000 of these muskets were also in Confederate hands.

In that same issue was a short story on escaped slaves being captured in Chicago. It was one of the many stories on the subject the anti-slavery newspaper had been running on almost a daily basis for months. In long essays The Republican savaged Southern ministers for preaching about the “divine institution of slavery.” In complaining about South Carolina the newspaper pointed out:

“The master has a right to sell a slave whenever he pleases, to sell a husband away from his wife, a wife away from her husband; a mother from her child and a child from its mother.”

The Republican gave prominent play to the story of a fugitive slave named Anderson whom the Canadian courts refused to give up to Missouri to be tried for killing his master. He eloquently told his tale and when asked why he made his mind up to go to Canada he said:

“Well, I think I would rather be in prison all my life in Canada than be in slavery. I had a desire to learn, but 39 lashes is the punishment inflicted for reading a book.”

The Republican, which had been in the forefront of the abolitionist movement dating back to the 1820’s, never let its readers forget what this war was about.

By April 15, word had reached Springfield that Fort Sumter had fallen and was now in the hands of the Confederates. It was time for Massachusetts to take its place in the most massive war machine the country had ever constructed. Lincoln sent out a call for 75,000 troops and the federal shops and private companies in Western Massachusetts began the task of outfitting the huge war effort. It would change the face of the country forever and bring a combination of misery and prosperity to Springfield where fortunes were made and fathers and sons were killed on many a far away battlefield.

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On April 19 The Republican recounted the story of how more than 5,000 people crowded along the railroad tracks in Springfield to welcome the first trainload of 1,100 Massachusetts troops headed for Washington. The depot on Main Street was decorated with flags and Mayor Bemis introduced Benjamin F. Butler of Lowell, commander of the troops.

“Fathers, mothers, brothers, wives, sisters and affianced ones gave grave vent to their emotions in tears and other manifestations of grief, and many of the scenes melted the stoutest of hearts,” the paper reported.

Many of these men never came back and a few never even made it to Washington.

The first Massachusetts casualties of the war died at the hands of a pro-Confederate mob as they marched through Baltimore where they had to change trains for Washington. These were the soldiers on the train that had passed through Springfield the day before. Four soldiers from Lowell and Lawrence were the first casualties of a war that would claim over 600,000 soldiers.

On the following Monday, April 22, The Republican announced it would regularly publish an evening edition to keep up with the news of the Civil War that was to last another 48 months.